Certification

Dr. Daniel Amen Speaks at Lecture Series Event

DALLAS - On Tuesday evening, May 8, Dr. Daniel Amen, CEO and Medical Director of Amen Clinics, Inc. in Newport Beach, CA addressed a crowd of 115 attendees on the topic of "Brain Health - How to Maintain It." Dr. Amen is a brain imaging specialist, child and adult psychiatrist, and is the author of 22 books. His clinic now has the world's largest database of functional brain scans relating to psychiatric medicine; the database now contains almost 40,000 scans.

Some simple but perhaps relatively unknown facts about the brain include:

Our brains are 2% of our body weight and require 20% of the body's blood flow and the same percentage of nutrient use.

Much like our hearts, a healthy brain thrives on exercise/physical and mental activity, good nutrition, and most importantly, moderation in anything we put into our bodies in the way of alcohol, food and drugs.

Our brains have the texture of tofu or a soft banana and, though protected by a solid cranial structure, can sustain injury relatively easily, especially with repetitive, direct impacts.

Our brains do not fully develop until age 24-25.

The premise of Dr. Amen's work with his database of brain scans was based on his observation that a patient complaint of depression is much like that of a patient complaint of chest pains - both are symptoms and need diagnostic and doctor/patient due diligence to find the cause and then treat accordingly.

Dr. Amen's subscription dinner lecture was the second of four scheduled for 2007. For more information and cost on the remaining two lectures, please check out our Conference & Lectures section for details. Reservations must be made by calling Amanda Moody in The Cooper Institute Development Office at (972) 716-7087. Subscription proceeds go to support the research and education programs and initiatives at the Institute.